2016 Belgian Grand Prix
|poletime = 1:46.744 |fastestlap = 1:51.583 |fastestlapdriver = Lewis Hamilton |fastestlapnation = GBR |fastestlapteam = |fastestlapnumber = 41 |winner = Nico Rosberg |winnernation = GER |winnerteam = |second = Daniel Ricciardo |secondnation = AUS |secondteam = |third = Lewis Hamilton |thirdnation = GBR |thirdteam = }} The 2016 Belgian Grand Prix (officially the 2016 Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix) was the thirteenth race of the 2016 Formula One season, and the sixtieth time the Belgian Grand Prix was held on the Formula One calendar. It was held between 26 August and 28 August 2016. __TOC__ Background After the , Lewis Hamilton led the Drivers' Championship with 217 points, 19 points ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg. The rest of the top five remained unchanged, as Daniel Ricciardo was still third with 133 points, Kimi Räikkönen fourth and eleven points behind Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel another two points behind. Once again, led the Constructors' Championship with 415 points. moved ahead of to be second in the standings, and 159 points behind Mercedes. were far behind, having only 96 points after having poor results in all the races in July. were fifth, just fifteen points behind Williams. During the summer break, confirmed that Esteban Ocon would replace Rio Haryanto at the Belgian Grand Prix, after Haryanto's sponsorship had financial problems. However, they also confirmed that Haryanto would remain as their reserve driver.'Ocon replaces Haryanto at Manor', formula1.com, (Formula One Administration, 10/08/2016), http://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2016/8/ocon-replaces-haryanto-at-manor.html, (Accessed 10/08/2016) Medium, soft and supersoft tyres were used in the Grand Prix, which it marked the first time supersofts were used in the Belgian Grand Prix. However, Mercedes chose the fewest sets of supersofts, being four compared to the other teams using either five, six or seven. Pirelli also made an announcement that they would have two sets of prototype tyres available for the teams to use in Friday practice in Belgium, to see if they were as fast as the original tyres, but more resistant to causing accidents involving kerbs and other parts around the track. On 25 August 2016, Hamilton announced that his fifth engine had already given up after the previous race in Germany, and that he would use a sixth engine in Belgium, though it meant he would have to take a grid penalty, since drivers in the 2016 season were only allowed to use up to five engines without a penalty. refused to immediately reveal who would drive for them in , as team principal Fred Vasseur stated that the lineup could perhaps be revealed in early September. One week before Friday practice, gaming company Codemasters released the F1 2016 video game on 19 August for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows. Several drivers also mentioned how much they loved the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, and that they would be trying to get the right setups for the Grand Prix. Plus, Verstappen expected to have a lot of fans from the Netherlands coming to the circuit to support him throughout the weekend. also introduced their first updates on the C35. Entry list Practice Overview FP1 For the first practice session, Mercedes confirmed that Rosberg had his fourth power unit fitted, while Hamilton had several engine part changes gone over the allowance, meaning that he would have a fifteen-place grid penalty at the time. At the start of the session, Rosberg tested the "halo" system that was being considered for future use in protecting drivers from flying debris. He also tested Pirelli's prototype tyres, and soon went fastest with a time of 1:48.348 on supersoft tyres, while Hamilton was second fastest. Räikkönen followed them, but he and Vettel were both separated by Pérez's lap time that put him fourth. Gutiérrez was tenth fastest for the Haas team, but McLaren were outside the top ten, as Button was only eighteenth after saying that his car's gearbox had oscillations, while Alonso failed to set a time within three laps, due to his car suffering a water leak while he was on the track. On his debut, Ocon went sixteenth, while Wehrlein was only nineteenth on prototypes. Nasr, who was fifteenth, was spotted speeding in the pit lane, resulting in Sauber being fined €1,000. After the session, Mercedes confirmed that Hamilton's car had been fitted with its seventh turbocharger and MGU-H of 2016, meaning that Hamilton had another fifteen places added to his penalty, which would put him at the back of the grid no matter where he qualified. McLaren had to fix Alonso's car by fitting a sixth ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K, turbo, control electronics and energy store. All of these resulted in Alonso getting a 35-place grid penalty to join Hamilton at the back, while Ericsson was given a ten-place grid penalty for using his sixth turbocharger of the season. FP2 Rosberg set a time of 1:49.161, running on softs rather than supersofts. Running on mediums, Hamilton was temporarily fastest with a time of 1:49.782, before others moved up. Hamilton and Vettel were a couple who complained about tyre vibrations after running for between twelve and fourteen laps. Once again, some drivers used the prototype tyres at one point in the session. Verstappen was fastest in the session, running on supersofts and setting a time of 1:48.085, while teammate Ricciardo was second fastest. Vettel, meanwhile, was put into a Force India sandwich, as Hülkenberg and Pérez were third and fifth respectively, and Vettel had a couple of laps where he made mistakes. The session ended with Rosberg and Hamilton being sixth and thirteenth respectively, while McLaren had a better run with Alonso, who went twelfth fastest, and Button was ninth between the Haas drivers Grosjean and Gutiérrez. FP3 In the third practice session, Räikkönen was fastest out of every driver, with a time of 1:47.974. Vettel was only third, as Ricciardo was faster than him in the session. Verstappen failed to set a time following a gearbox issue. Surprisingly, the Williams team got into the top five after failing to finish high up in the previous four races, as Bottas went fourth fastest, while Massa was eighth. At one point, Wehrlein was trying to get past Gutiérrez at Turn 4, but Gutiérrez was driving slowly and on the racing line, which forced Wehrlein to go onto the grass. The stewards soon gave Gutiérrez a five-place grid penalty plus three penalty points for the incident. A similar incident occurred between Magnussen and Vettel, but that one had no further action from the stewards. Once again, the Mercedes drivers were not in the top three, as Hamilton did most of the session at race pace on softs, and only managed to do one quick lap time on supersofts around three seconds before the chequered flag was waved. He also had another new engine and others fitted to his car, meaning his penalty would count fifty-five places. Practice Results Qualifying Q1 Knowing that he would start at the back anyway, but that he needed to get within 107 per cent of the fastest time in Q1, Hamilton did at least one flying lap on softs, being 1:50.033. Alonso, however, could not set a lap time, as his car stopped beside the track during his out lap. After mistakenly leaving the track and rejoining with the possibility of gaining an advantage, Nasr and Magnussen had to go out again to set clean lap after their previous ones were deleted. As Q1 ended, Massa surprisingly set the quickest lap time ahead of Vettel, Räikkönen and Rosberg. As Rosberg was on soft tyres, the other three were faster than him with sets of supersofts. Nasr, Ocon, Kvyat, Ericsson, Hamilton and Alonso were all knocked out in the session. Q2 Going on softs so to try and get the fastest time and use those softs at the start of the race, Rosberg was fastest with a time of 1:46.999. Verstappen followed, using a set of supersofts which he would have to start the race on. Ricciardo and the Ferraris all went on softs in Q2, and managed to stay out of trouble of getting into the knockout zone. Both Williams and Force India qualified for the top ten, and Button made a lap fast enough for him to get into tenth place. The drivers who did not make it into the top ten were: Grosjean, Magnussen, Gutiérrez, Palmer, Sainz and Wehrlein. Gutiérrez dropped down to eighteenth thanks to his five-place grid penalty that he awarded in FP3. Q3 Unsurprisingly, Rosberg set the fastest lap of Q3, and took pole position, which meant he was sharing the Pole Position Trophy with Hamilton. Verstappen was second on the grid, marking the first time he was on the front row, along with breaking the record of being the youngest front-row starter, set previously by Ricardo Rodríguez in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. Verstappen was also the first Dutchman to qualify on the front row. Räikkönen, who went wide at Stavelot on his first lap, out-qualified Vettel, who complained about losing the back end at the end of his lap. Ricciardo was unable to beat the Ferraris, and Pérez and Hülkenberg qualified sixth and seventh respectively. Williams could not repeat Massa's time in Q1, as they had issues with their engine software. In the end, Bottas qualified eighth, and Massa tenth behind Button. Post-qualifying After qualifying, McLaren discovered that Alonso's car had low oil pressure after final practice, and tried to get it sorted in time for qualifying, but there was no improvement. It meant McLaren had to replace a couple of Alonso's engine parts again, making his penalty worth sixty places. Nevertheless, the stewards allowed Alonso to take part in the race due to having took part in practice. Meanwhile, Räikkönen stated that if he had not gone wide, he might have got pole, saying that he lost two tenths at the Bus Stop chicane. Ricciardo, however, felt he was confident that Hamilton would not catch up to him and the rest of the top five if they had a clean race and not held up in traffic, while Hamilton himself said that it would be a difficult race for him, and that he was not sure how likely it would be to get into the top ten, as he would risk his tyres losing grip while stuck behind other drivers: "I envisage it will be hard to get into the top 10. All I can do is to aim as high as possible. A podium feels unlikely but it's not impossible. With these tyres the way they are, which is a bit of a mess, it is going to be tough out there for everyone. It's a long race. I don't have to go crazy at the start. That's the same whenever we start at the back. There were failures last year and they didn't want failures this year so they put the pressures up to 23, 24psi whatever it is. It's so high. I have never seen pressures like that my whole racing career. That doesn't help. It is going to be a very, very hard race. Being this hot it is going to be hard to follow. Being in the traffic it is going to be hard to get to my stop target, or go longer than the guys in front of me. But I hope I prove myself wrong and I hope I'm pleasantly surprised." Qualifying Results ** Gutiérrez was given a five-place grid penalty for blocking Wehrlein during Saturday practice. *† Ericsson was given a ten-place grid penalty for using more than five turbochargers during the season. *‡ Hamilton was given a 60-place grid penalty for using a sixth engine, sixth MGU-K, eighth MGU-H, and an eighth turbocharger, and having a seal from his gearbox removed. *§ Alonso was given a 60-place grid penalty for changes to his ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K, turbo, control electronics and energy store. Grid Source ** Gutiérrez was given a five-place grid penalty for blocking Wehrlein during Saturday practice. *† Ericsson was given a ten-place grid penalty for using more than five turbochargers during the season. *‡ Hamilton was given a 60-place grid penalty for using a sixth engine, sixth MGU-K, eighth MGU-H, and an eighth turbocharger, and having a seal from his gearbox removed. *§ Alonso was given a 60-place grid penalty for changes to his ICE, MGU-H, MGU-K, turbo, control electronics and energy store. Race Report Results Milestones *Jenson Button's 300th entry (297th start). *Esteban Ocon's first F1 race. *Max Verstappen became the youngest driver to qualify on the front row, at 18 years, 10 months and 28 days. This broke the record set by Ricardo Rodríguez in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, and Verstappen also became the first Dutchman to start on the front row. Lance Stroll later broke the former record at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix. Standings after race Notes Category:Grand Prix articles Category:2016 Grands Prix Category:Belgian Grand Prix Category:Formula One races in Belgium